Harry e



(No Model!) H. E. DEY.

APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATICALLY MAINTAINING CURRENT UPON MOVING VEHIGLES.

Patented lPec. 31, 1895.

No. 552,105.rm

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HARRY E. DEY, OE BROOKLYN, ASSIGNOR TO EDTVARD N. DICKERSON AND ERNEST R. ESMOND, OF NETV YORK, N. Y.

APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATICALLY MAINTAINING CURRENT UPON MOVING VEHICLES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 552,105, dated December 31, 1895. Application filed May 20, 1895. Serial No. 549,867. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRY E. DEY, of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for Automatically Maintaining Current upon Moving Vehicles, of which the following is a specification.

Moving vehicles deriving their motion from electric motors are oftentimes supplied with electric lamps illuminated by current derived from the same source as that which supplies the driving-motor. Any interruption in the current manifests itself immediately at the lamps when in circuit, making this system of illumination at times an objectionable one. Especially is this de-energizing of the lamps liable to occur in that system of motor-supply in which a sliding shoe or revolving wheel moves along a stationary conductor adjacent the track, deriving current therefrom for the motor or motors of the car.

The present invention is directed toward the supplying of the vehicles with a suitable apparatus to secure the maintenance of a current through the lamp-circuit, even though the main circuit be for a time interrupted, as well as providing a source of electric energy by which a current may be maintained through the driving motor or motors of the vehicle.

I will describe an apparatus for automatically maintaining current upon moving vehi cles, and then point out the novel features in the claims.

The accompanying drawing represents a diagrammatic view of such an apparatus, in which A A are the rails upon which the vehicle travels, 13 a suitable conductor connected with a convenient source of electrical energy, and C the axles of the vehicle.

D is the propelling motor of the car,it being represented, for present purposes, in conventional form partly supported on the axle O and actuating the same through. single reduction gearing.

E is the main circuit extending from the trolley or revolving contact-piece c to ground via the axle G, the brushes of the motor D being interposed in the circuit, as well understood and commonly constructed.

The lamp-circuit is shown. at 1 2 3 4,11100111- prising a branch circuit from the main circuit E with interposed lamps F, and passes to ground at 4 via the axle. Instead of lamps any other form of translating device may be interposed in the circuit.

F is a motor-dynamo or so-called continuous-current transformer. It comprises the usual fieldmagnets and two independent armature-windings upon the same armatureshaft, one winding constituting a motorwinding traversed by the current from the trolley, while the remaining winding is so disposed as to give a desired output as regards quantity or strength of current or both.

The circuit 2 i embraces the motor-winding through the motor-brushes f and is a shuntcircuit of the lamp circuit.

The other or dynamo winding communicates by brushes g with an independent circuit Gr which embraces a storage-battery g or a series of such batteries.

Then the current due to the potential ex- .75 isting at the conductor B passes through the lamp-oircuit 1 2 3 4c of the car a portion of the total current traversing the circuit 1 2 will pass through the circuit 2 4, including the motor-winding of the motor-dynamo F. The armature of the latter is thereby rotated, generating an electromotive force at the brushes 9, and a current is forced through the storage-battery g. If new for any reason the current from the trolley e'is interrupted, 8 5 the electromotive force of the storage-battery is applied to the brushes g. The functions of the armature windings of the motor-dynamo are now reversed and an electromotive force is developed at the brushes f, creating a current through the lamp-circuit 2 3 4, as well as through the motor D. Current is thus automatically supplied through the agency of the battery g and the motor-dynamo, while the main source of current-supply is cut off.

Having described my invention, what I consider as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination with a vehicle, of an electric motor embraced in a circuit energized I00 from a suitable source, a motor dynamo or similar converting device, and a storage battery energized from the motor dynamo and adapted to actuate the latter and energize the motor circuit upon a cessation of the main supply.

' 2. The combination With a Vehicle, of an electric motor embraced in a circuit energized from a suitable source, a branch circuit from the motor circuit, translating devices included in the branch circuit, a motor dynamo or similar converting device, and a storage battery energized from the motor dynamo and adapted to actuate the latter and energize the motor circuit upon a cessation of the main supply. 

